Twin Emperors[EPIC RPG MKIV] - Story Minute

Session 10 - Aethership

The companions poured up the stairs. Hearing hasty barricades clattering against the doors to the upstairs rooms, the companions battered at the walls instead, breaching through to the rooms of Blisseru and his men. In the midst of the short, vicious battle, Michkin – keeping watch down below - heard shutters blast open into the Monsoom upstairs and rushed outside just in time to see Blisseru sail through the air to a building across the street. At the same moment, Nise showed up smelling overpoweringly of sewage.

Michkin had no time to ask what was happening with Nise, rushing upstairs to tell the others of Blisseru's escape and barging in just as the last of Blisseru's men died. After hastily looting the bodies and rooms, the group headed back into the choking grit. They stumbled through a blinding hell lit repeatedly by the flash and rumble of distant explosions. The scramble sent them through craters, ducking around burning buildings, and, bizarrely, wading through ankle deep water where shattered aqueducts transformed streets into rivers.

On the way, they found themselves briefly in the lee of a wooden palisade, face-to-face with the young martyr who had warned Eliot Sam of the attacks the day before. Eliot Sam bolstered the lads' flagging courage and sent the young man charging off into the storm.

A short while later, the companions arrived at the gates to the Gantry Port – or what was left of where the gates had been: a several-hundred foot wide crater strewn with smoking rubble. Beyond, Aetherships blazed, setting the storm aglow as bucket brigades of sailors frantically attempted to quench the blazes. When questions, a passing sailor pointed them westward, directing them to the Independent Docks.

Storm-muffled sounds of battle reached them long before they reached the docks themselves and they raced onward to find two dozen Hollow sailors and citizens assaulting Captain Taggart's ship.
At the prow, Blisseru and his sole surviving agent battled a swarm of Hollowed while at the aft-castle Taggart, his first mate Steffa, and a handful of surviving sailors battled desperately against an even larger horde. Though the group launched a reckless assault to save the Captain and crew, only Blisseru remained standing of those aboard the ship when the last of the Hollowed had been dispatched. Worse, during the fighting Taggart ordered the mooring lines cut and the ship drifted in the storm towards a burning ship still tied at anchor.

Eliot Sam leapt to the ship's yoke, hazarding a guess at what manipulations might steer them clear. He guessed wrong, ripping the front of the ship off in the process and sending Michkin flying off the ship to his death – or would have if his Ghost Bank gift hadn't sent him back in time a few seconds to secure himself before the collision.

Michkin raced to the helm to replace Eliot Sam and steered clear of the tangle about the same time Maderu discovered the captain was breathing, barely. Pursus managed to heal him to consciousness while the group discussed what to do about Blisseru. Between Pursus and Maderu's assurances, Eliot Sam's killer instinct was reigned in and the group approached Blisseru warily but with weapons sheathed.

They had just begun to question the Continuum Agent when stared past them and pointed at Nise, accusing the unformed man of luring Blisseru's men to an ambush by Hollow Men the day before. At that moment, Nise lunged forward towards Captain Taggart with a knife. Michkin jerked the ship askew in an attempt to throw Nise off balance, but it was too late.

Nise whispered “I'm sorry” to Michkin and hurled himself off the ship as Taggart slumped to the deck with a knife buried in his skull. An unintended effect of the maneuver sent Blisseru stumbling into the aether catch that punched through the ship held it aloft, leaving Blisseru tangled... and at the group's mercy. After extracting a promise that Blisseru would do no harm to anyone in their association, Eliot Sam extracted the Continuum Agent from the mesh of the aether catch.

As they drifted off into the Great Rift, the Monsoom briefly thinned, revealing burning devastation across Aetherport The Aque-Sentinam seemed to be intact so Brassy had presumably done her job... wherever she was.

After taking an inventory of the ship and settling in, the group scattered and passed out, exhausted from almost two long days of hard riding and fighting and scheming since the last time they slept. Aside from a slight mishap with a flock of geese tangling themselves in the Skein, the next day passed uneventfully, finding them at the end of the Great Rift after a day of travel. The following day, Michkin and Elliot Jr. took turns steering them north from rift to rift, reaching the Flashing River that marked the end of the rifts and their free lift. Beyond stretched the crags of the Hollow Mountains and the dark sprawl of the Stonewood as dark began to descend.

Worryingly, a black storm twisted and churned straight through their path, setting forth a choice – brave the weather or divert and hope the jutting peaks of the Hollow Mountains might serve as a shield against the black fury of the coming storm...

Session 11 - Like Clockwork

Michkin chose the mountains over steering straight into the storm, veering towards the potential shelter of the Hollow Mountains. No sooner had they reached in the storm-shadow of its jagged summits than another Aethership emerged from behind a distant chain of mountains, rapidly gaining on them.

After failing to outrun their pursuer via means of several risky glides down the slopes of the rocky peaks, the pursuing Aethership drew near enough to make out the bleeding skull painted across its hull. Piecing together bits he'd overheard on the streets of Aetherport, Michkin identified the ship as the Mourning Star, one of the biggest and the newest Aetherships ever made, said to possess some new technology that enabled it to gain altitude in a way no other ship can.

Then it launched a spread of two-man gliders.

Michkin's fancy flying sent two of the six canvas craft sailing off into the mountains below, but the other four drew close enough loose arrows before crash-landing on the ship. A frantic battle followed and no sooner had they fought off the boarding parties than the Mourning Star eclipsed them. A massive spear plunged down five-hundred feet to embed through both decks, binding the two ships together. Quick thinking and quicker sword work on Eliot Sam's part severed the massive cable, hurling an plummeting boarding platform off into the night.

Twenty-ish dead crew seemed to be enough for Captain Fury Faeda as the Mourning Star slowed and drifted away, leaving the Brother's Pride to its northward course.

A few random, unnecessary peak-slaloms and one seizure later, the group realized Michkin had been under the Ghost Bank ceo Salga's control the whole time. They pounced on Michkin, subduing him and pushing a protesting Eliot Jr. to the helm as the ship drifted over a high mountain valley. As the group argued over what to do with Michin, they spotted a large stone dome nestled on a forested plateau, the stone shelf of a broken bridge jutting out from the side presenting a perfect place to moor the ship.

Eliot Jr. protested his lack of ability to do such a thing – especially at night as the storm whipped into the valley – and so Michkin was released to take the helm again, ably steering the ship to safety.

Exhausted, the ragged crew of companions posted watches, stumbled below decks, and passed out. On his watch, Eliot Sam spotted a slight figure in ragged robes staring from the shelter of the forest for a moment before melting away, but otherwise the night held only wind and rain.
They awoke to a drizzling dawn, quickly determining that Eliot Sam, Pursus, and Michkin would examine the ruins in the woods while the others stayed behind to repair what they could on the ship.

The trio skulked into the trees, coming quickly to a string of red-shingled buildings given over to the elements. A quick scouring of the first two yielded only a handful of coins and so the group abandoned the search, making for the larger structures. En route, they came across a weathered amphitheater flanked by a pair of small domed towers.

A heavy door swollen in its frame blocked access to the first of these so Eliot Sam scaled it, preying open the heavy bronze shutter at its top, dropping in, and knocking the door out from the inside. Within, a series of fine glass lenses anchored in a framework of brass, focusing on a stone pedestal empty but for a triangular niche for some unknown object. Investigating the second tower yielded identical results.

Pressing on towards the larger dome, they diverted to follow a side-path to a thirty-foot obelisk, a strange hollow at the peak. Footsteps crunched on the trail behind them just as they moved to investigate it.

Slipping into the trees, they watched as a small, weathered man walk down the path talking to himself. As he seemed relatively harmless, they approached, learning the man's name was something like “Sursura” and that he was keeping the place “safe for the Masters”. As they talked with him, Sursura fell into random fits of violent self-abuse then ran away screaming when they asked him who the Masters were.

Unperturbed, the group continued on, gaining their first glimpse of the main structure: a large stone dome with two large wings stretching out to embrace a surprisingly clean cobbled plaza. Jutting from the south, a massive elevated bronze cage while to the east extended a two-story structure of white-plastered stone fronted by a wooden portico. In contrast to the state of the run-down dwellings they'd ransacked earlier, this structure was immaculately maintained.

Just as they were about to close and investigate, Sursura walk along the portico, muttering to himself loudly “they can't find the Masters, they can't hurt the Masters”. The rambling caretaker then produced a ring of keys, entering one of several doors beneath the portico.

The companions hustled across the open plaza towards him, arriving in time to see him take a third of a dozen clockwork children down from the meathooks on which they hung. Still muttering “protect the Masters!” he wound up the third, then spotted Michkin and screamed it again.

The three wound clockids ratcheted their right arms, each crank extending blades further out of their knuckles...

Session 12 - The Solider and the Politician

Author's Note: I've had waaay less time to work on this than I thought. If the editing has gone down hill in the last few episodes, it's due to my prioritizing getting it posted at all over a deeper edit. When things calm down a bit I'll hopefully be able to go back over and do a final edit.

A year ago, Michkin's father was knifed in a minor dispute the same night his mother accidentally burned his family's house and workshop down. In the midst of a personal and spiritual crisis, Michkin encountered a madman named Mud Stone, following the Gibbering Priest half-way across the world until one morning he awoke to find the priest gone.

A little over a week ago, Cragslander Gorge and tinker Raxtus took their leave from the group after the slaughter at Chimney, the pair heading south in search of Gorge's true love, the Saitese Willow Courtesan Subtle Jade.

Meanwhile, this afternoon, Pursus, Eliot Sam, and Michkin sneaked after “Sursura”, the mad caretaker of the Dome ruins, into the Dome complex, there discovering the baggy-skinned man removing a dozen killer clockwork children from meathooks in a storage room, cranking them to life one at a time. At the same time, Nanoc arrived from the ship having followed Eliot Jr. as the young man slipped away from the ship but losing him in the woods.

Indecisive and divide as to what response to take to Sursura's literal machinations, the group argued, eventually leading to Nanoc tying the door ring to a portico post to seal it closed as Michkin climbed onto the roof seeking a back entrance. With the argument that there would be hell to pay if Sursura managed to activate all dozen clockkids and send them at them, Eliot Sam cut the rope Nanoc had just tied and they reopened the door to see half-a-dozen of the clockids activated. Nanoc loosed an arrow to initiate the engagement.

In the following fight the group made several hard discoveries: one, the children could fire their fist claws then rip them free via wire tethers; two, the children being half-flesh, half-metal were nearly impervious to Pursus' magics; three, the children exploded half-a-second after being fatally damaged. Pursus went down to one such detonation, leaving Nanoc in a brutal fight over his body, struggling to take out one of the clockids without killing Pursus in the process while Eliot Sam kited led several others in a running battle through the woods, taking them out one-at-a-time.

Eliot Jr. arrived to help only to be cut down a few seconds later, followed almost immediately by Nanoc. Fortunately, Michkin arrived from breaking in the back of some sort of laboratory and helped Eliot Sam finish the last of the abominable constructs as Sursura fled wailing. Gathering their remaining companions from the Aethership, Eliot Jr. and Pursus were taken back to be nursed back to consciousness by Mideru.

The next morning after a brief spat of healing magics, the group met on deck where Pursus and Eliot Sam chewed Michkin a new one for abandoning the others in the middle of a fight to go exploring. Michkin protested that the last thing he'd seen was Nanoc tying the door shut and the group arguing to ignore Sursura before climbing onto the roof. Pursus slapped him, then he and Nanoc backhanded Eliot Jr. to silence as well when Jr. tried to stand up for him.

In the following lecture, Eliot Sam and Pursus expressed a lack of confidence in Michkin's right to be captain of the ship if he was just going to “run away and hide” when the going got tough, Pursus calling Michkin a “whiny little girl” when he protested again. As Michkin acquiesced, swearing to step down, Eliot Sam led him into the forest to tell him how to be a leader of men – that he must lead by example if he was to be followed. In the process, he handed Michkin the Throne Barony signet ring he'd obtained from Gimble Throne, telling Michkin that Eliot Sam was getting to old to be the sort of leader the Eon Baronies needed but perhaps Michkin could be that man.

As Michkin reached for the ring, Michkin's Magpie swooped in and snagged it, landing on a branch and eyeing Michkin's magpie ring. As Michkin opened his mouth to order his magpie to obey, Eliot Sam halted him, telling him those forced to follow were little more than slaves. Michkin nodded and removed the magpie ring, setting it out on a rock. The magpie swooped down in joy, dropping the signet ring, swooping straight up, slipping the magpie ring over his head in mid-air, then diving at Michkin.

When Michkin held his hands up protectively, the magpie plunged into Michkin's hand, leaving a magpie tattoo on Michkin's palm.

When the Eliot Sam and Michkin returned to the ship, Michkin said he was not fit to lead until he proved himself worthy of it, throwing the captain's hat overboard. To everyone's amazement, a shadow magpie darted from his palm, grabbing the hat and returning it to Michkin's head. The others took it as an omen and agreed that Michkin would still be captain, at least onboard the ship.

About that time, Blisseru and Mideru approached, wondering how much longer they were to spend exploring a ruin instead of pursuing the Twins. This led to a heavy discussion of what the group's ultimate objective was and whether the potential dangers that might exist in the ruins and the time it would take to explore them might be worthwhile for whatever Sursura had been left behind to protect. When Blisseru questioned their eventual decision spend one more day resting and patching the ship before making one final excursion to the ruins, Pursus turned on him, demanding something more than empty words of wealth and glory from the Jade Warrior.

Blisseru stepped in, saying the Continuum was soon to be the primary power in Chiain, the Order planning to end Chiain's isolationism after centuries of non-interference. He bespoke of the Jade Warrior's dwindling numbers, significance, and power, saying siding with him upon returning the Twins would put the power of the Continuum at their backs. Blisseru and Mideru both swore again that the companions would receive their weight in gold at the least, but Pursus pushed for their aid in securing Eliot Sam's Barony as part of the deal. Blisseru gave vague promises of political support while Mideru admitted he could promise nothing except to swear on his honor his own personal devotion and that of any Jade Warriors that might follow wherever Eliot Sam might lead if the Twin Emperors were restored.

Pursus called their honor worthless, telling Blisseru there was no way he would trust his word and challenging Mideru's role, saying he had done nothing to help in their pursuit of the Twins. When Mideru protested and began to enumerate his efforts in combat and healing, Pursus cut him off and said Mideru and all of the “helpful” things he had mentioned were worthless. When Mideru asked if he should no longer perform those services if they were offending, Pursus called him a “whiny little girl” and told him he was busying hammering nails while they fought for their lives the day before, telling Mideru to “take some initiative for once.”

As Pursus let the others away to discuss things in private, Nanoc approached Mideru, telling the old warrior that Nanoc still thought he was a good guy, receiving in return Mideru's admission that he was a soldier first and had perhaps been to willing to wait for orders rather then act. He also warned that normally he'd have had to kill Pursus for his numerous slights to his honor, but would make an exception given the dire circumstances.

As the group headed to the fore to discuss their plans away from Blisseru and Mideru, a brilliant white glow from the far North grew exponentially to become a blinding wall of light, chased momentarily by a rumble that rocked the mountains around them. As the group queried one another for the event's meaning, Nanoc swore it was a sign of the end times, that Firkhan had at last been overwhelmed atop the Barrier Wall and the hordes of darkness beyond would soon spill into the world.

Unsure of what to do with that information, they returned to discussing their goals, weighing siding with the Soldier or the Politician or whether they should go it alone. Eliot Sam pushed for finishing what they'd started and killing Blisseru off when the time was right, while also declaring he'd been a terrible husband and father and maybe it was time to rescue and restore the young Twins just for the kids own sakes because they chose to do so instead of following anyone else's agenda or seeking a reward. In the conversation, Pursus also admitted that Eliot Jr. seemed to have “a bit of sand” for all his foppishness.

In the end, they decided to recuperate from their many wounds one more day before making a final decision. As the group dispersed to rest and think on their own, Michkin decided to see what might be painted on the underside of their ship, finding – to the group's dismay – that a portrait of the recently departed Captain Taggart grinned down from its spread across the whole bottom hull of the Aethership.

Session 13 - Domes, Thrones, and Boulderlanders

As the companions aboard the Brother's Pride stirred from their exhausted slumber and debated their future plans, they glanced up to notice three figures staring at them from the far side of the broken bridge where the Aethership sat at anchor: Brassy Jons, a bizarre figure with a half-shaved, half-dreadlocked head, and Gorged Upon the Mother of a Chieftain Beyond the Spruce Grove. Casting over a grappling hook, then a harness, the three were brought aboard, Brassy and Gorge talking of stumbling into the Gibbering Priest Mud Stone and traveling instantly with him from the ruins of one crumbling Gibbering Temple to another.

After giving everyone a sloppy kiss, Brassy chided them for not waiting for her back at Aetherport. After relaying their extenuating circumstances, they asked why she was late. She replied that the Silver Order apprehended her after she warned them of the Eon Martyrs, the Captain of the Order promising to “pound the truth out of her” as to how she learned of the attacks. She had escaped and lain low in the ruins of a Gibbering Temple until Mud Stone had found her.

Recognizing Mud Stone, Michkin approached and offered a handshake. Mud Stone instead slurped on his fingers, then stated that he was correct: they were the ones who had given the Death Cult access to the Far Paths. He asked why they thought allowing the Death Cult to rapidly spread throughout the world was a good idea and got only blank stares in return as the companions worked out what had happened.

When asking after the nature of the Far Paths yielded no sensible results, Michkin asked how the Death Cult might be stopped. Mud Stone posited that murdering the murder spirit was the only means, achievable only through might of magic after drawing the Murder Spirit out with a suitably grisly sacrifice.

Rapidly changing subjects, Mud Stone asked if they managed to get the “mechanism of the dome” working. Michkin asked if Mud Stone could help them do so, to which Mud Stone replied that anything was possible.

In the mean time, Samara pulled Eliot Sam aside, upset at Brassy's sudden return and the kiss she planted on Eliot Sam. He assuaged her anger and anxiety by stating that a kiss was nothing, devotion like what he had for her was what carried meaning.

With that, Eliot Sam, Michkin, Pursus, Gorge, and Brassy set out to finish the job at the dome, Mud Stone trailing along eating leaves and plucking an errant furry caterpillar. Sneaking through the forest to the edge of the plaza, they watched Sursura swarming around the main complex, frantically patching up the jagged holes and errant shrapnel fragments. The group debated the merits of talking to the crazy caretaker or simply shooting him, glancing up in time to see Mud Stone casually talking Sursura as he joined in the repairs.

The companions approached and Pursus asked if they might be able to help, Sursura replying that they had to protect the Masters. Asking how they might help do that, Sursura told them they could perhaps repair the wall with him or bring him more “living children” so he could replace the clockworks that were destroyed. Eliot Sam said there was no way in hell they would ever do that, but he'd “loan him his sword.”

As everyone reached for weapons, Sursura let out a wail and swelled up to an eight-foot tall monstrosity of flesh and metal, channeling some perverse Shen powers that rendered him practically immune to their attacks. Pursus' magics were all that seemed to harm him, earning the mad giant's undivided attention. Pursus backpedaled as he launched more magics, but was beaten down into the cobbles of the plaza before Michkin, Eliot Sam, Gorge could land precisely aimed blows that wore the giant down, Eliot Sam's final blow removing Sursura's head.

As the rush of battle subsided, the survivors mournfully returned dead Pursus to the ship, CI frantically pawing, chittering, and cuddling to bring his master back to life.

With no capability of doing so, the others returned to the ruins, finding one room full of alchemical reagents, a clockwork laboratory with a single half-built clockid dissected on a workbench along with a clockwork rat that Brassy cranked to an imitation of life. In the corner, the corpse of a small girl floated in a glass tube full of murky brown liquid.

A third room held a man-sized dissection table, strange brass apparatus, mechanical parts, and bizarre instruments. Through the annex lay a fully-furnished philtrology laboratory, the walls lined with long-expired herbs and agents, a sturdy glass display case packed with several dozen arcane potions and philters. Despite not knowing their use, they liberated the concoctions and pushed on. Beyond, a room packed with massive clockwork machinery, a crude stone wall mortared together through the middle of the mechanism. The rough-built wall was so at odds with the immaculate construction of the rest of the complex, they became immediately suspicious.

Hammering a breach into the wall, they discovered four high-backed chairs, one bearing the desiccated corpse of a woman, while another woman and two men lay scattered along the walls in the fetal position, rotted in their age-moldered finery.

As the others looted a sizable handful of gem-studded rings from the corpses, Michkin caught a faint wheezing plea for “water” from the corpse on the throne. Splashing a fair bit on the woman's face and down her throat instantly revitalized her – at least those areas where the water touched. She urged them to hurry before mad Ser Suramon found and killed them and her relief was palpable when they pronounced him dead.

They poured enough water to restore the flesh of her face and neck, intentionally leaving the rest of her body dry and desicated. The woman proclaimed herself Aslen Throne and demanded to know if the Jade Warriors were still overrunning the Eon Baronies and whether the civil war still raged between the Endovin and Raikast Dynasties and if the Demon-Possessed still roamed the world. Eliot Sam used these scraps of lore to place her memories at at least a century ago.

Pushing her further, they learned that she had fled the Eon Baronies in search of something that might give them an edge against the Saitese Empire and their unstoppable Jade Warriors, discovering several means to do so and also creating a machine that could grant immortality in the process. Unfortunately, their guardian Ser Suramon went mad in the course of an experiment, walling the four of them away after killing everyone else to “keep them safe”. The other three masters had killed themselves rather than shrivel to nothing.

Eliot Sam pressed her for something that might bring Pursus back to life. She promised that one of the potions would do so, swearing she would tell them which one if they just gave her another phial that would greatly help restore her. Michkin promised to give her the one for which she asked only when Pursus was restored. Agreeing, she pointed to a metal flask.

Nanoc ran back to the ship to revive Pursus, who came alive – to the delight of CI – but remained too weak to join them.. As soon as he returned, Eliot Sam plunged Widow's Reprisal into Aslen's throat.

“Can't have her competing for the Throne Barony,” he said by way of explanation as he wiped his blade clean on her robes.

Finally moving on to the dome, they found it to be empty of all but a giant bronze door built high above into the side of the dome, and a series of massive lenses in a brass machine all leading to a huge prism mounted over a chair in the center of the room. A heavy metal lever jutted from the wall nearby. As Mud Stone wandered over to lick the chair, Nanoc told him to take a seat. Mud Stone complied and Nanoc pulled the lever. The massive bronze door fell away as the gearworks in the other room tore themselves apart in Sursura's stonework.

Nanoc shrugged and the pushed on, climbing the stairs on the far side of the dome and pulling open a heavy door leading to the massive cage outside. Within lay heaped the skeletons of ten adults and thirty children, ten of which bore collars of unknown metal, each studded with bits of gem and crystal and bearing a single metal ring. Nearby, a staff of strange metal affixed with two tiers of ring-clips.

After swiping the staff and a couple collars and looting some lenses and prisms, they left the main building to investigate the two-story guardhouse squatting across the plaza. Within, rotting clothing, a century of BO, crumbling weapons, and a small splintering chest full of coin. Before heading back to the ship, Michkin discovered the collars clipped into the staff, hypothesizing that the staff gave some sort of control over those wearing the collars. All agreed it was nasty business.

Back aboard, Michkin asked Mud Stone how they might access the Far Path, to which Mud Stone pointed up at the nauseating blur of the newly-risen Gibbering Moon gliding north-to-south across the sky.

While they appraised Pursus of their discoveries, the clockwork rat and CI began to play, Pursus discovering that it was a mechanical familiar, a flood of variants pouring through it and into his mind. Deciding to push on after the Twins, Pursus used his new magic to fire arrows and, by their flight, learn that the Twins lay North.

Launching the ship and leaving the ruined dome complex behind, they headed North all day, spotting tens of thousands of creatures migrating south across the plains below, but unable to make out what they were in the fading light. The following morning Pursus used one of the lenses swiped from the dome to discern that the migration was in fact an invasion of Boulderlanders.

Upon hearing of this, Nanoc stated that that many Boulderlanders during summer could only mean not only had some Thane found a way through the impassable swamp in summer, but had become Khan, unifying all of the Boulderlands in a single massive invading migration of what might be all of the Boulderlanders. He then asked Mideru if the time frame of the explosion might have something to do with the Twins, Mideru agreeing that the culmination of the week-long trip of the Paradise East they were pursuing would closely coincide with the explosion.

As they floated onward, a wall of fire in the north filled the horizon, that night they sailed over it and, at dawn, spotted a massive still-glowing crater in the distance.

At mid-day they passed the rim of the miles-wide crater, a pinnacle of grassy earth still standing at its center, a shattered column of black stone rising from the center of the earthen column. Another arrow augury pointed Pursus to a group of a hundred-odd Boulderlanders heading south beneath them. Wasting no time, they ordered Eliot Jr. to take the Aethership to the nearest mountain, then launched in tandem from the ship in the three gliders left behind by the dead sky pirates.

Session 14 - Deadly Fruit

Between getting married, running four summer camps, and totaling my car, it was a busy summer. Hence the delay between posts. Only a few sessions left however, so will try to get them finished in the next month or so.

The companions sailed out over the smoking crater towards the group of hundred-odd Boulderlanders navigating its rim. As they made their impulsive launch, Mideru bowed, Jr. stared, and Samara and Blisseru swore up storms in their own respective languages. Mud Stone stared at Pursus, tapping three fingers against his face then pointing up at the Gibbering Moon. Then he walked off the ship.

While Michkin and Nanoc glided towards the group, Eliot Sam and Pursus struggled with the controls. Gorge and Brassy jerked the control sticks and spiraled back to save Mud Stone, Brassy grabbing him by the leg as he fell and leaving Gorge alone at the controls. Seeing Gorge and Brassy struggling with their extra passenger, Michkin and Nanoc sailed back to take Mud Stone. Nanoc fumbled the transition and sending Mud Stone plummeting thousands of feet into the smoldering haze below.

With help from a few summoned bursts of wind, Eliot Sam and Pursus cleared the crater to land on gentle rise, while Michkin's slick flying zipping he and Nanoc quickly to the same hill. Gorge and Brassy, however, crashed at the edge of the crater, landing heavily in a small pond.

The group marshaled as a detachment of Boulderlanders approached with weapons drawn. Seeing Nanoc among them, they halted, the groups leader, Torhild, telling Nanoc their orders were to kill the fliers and bring their winged contraptions to Enkila. Not expecting a fellow Boulderlander, they allowed Nanoc to convince them to bring them and one of their gliders to whoever Enkila was instead.

A short hike later found them surrounded by Boulderlanders and in discussion with the Rimewitch Enkila, the long sought and faintly luminous Twins regarding them curiously from nearby. In the exchange, Nanoc revealed they had flown north in pursuit of the Twins while Enkila told of the invasion of the host of the Boulderlands behind the Khan Borli Victorix who had found for the first time a secret way for the Kinnate to avoid the Summer Swamp and so invade en masse.

A few days ago, a northbound airship passing the southbound Boulderland horde let her band to follow, the massive explosion several days later filling the plains with fire and the air with ash. They skirted the fire in the mountains and pressed through the burnt stalks of the plains only to discover the Twins and Akuma climbing down the pedestal of earth at the heart of the crater.

After seizing the Twins and taking them for delivery to Borli, Akuma slipped away, pursued by Enkila's best tracker Sigrid and her brother, Marx. Nanoc warned them that a Legion was coming north to fight them, swearing one Legionnaire was worth fifty Boulderlanders. Enkila said they had destroyed the three Legions of the Curitous March, attacking their forts unexpectedly from the South instead of the North and lost almost no one.

She further told of Borli's plan to set the clans to taking the Eon Baronies and Aetherport, Borli and the clan leaders currently holding a final meeting two days south before they clans dispersed. Another meeting was set for the end of Summer-year for Borli to take her part-in-ten of whatever wealth they captured.

Enkila said she had been told to kill all non-Boulderlanders they encountered to maintain surprise, but that this group would make excellent prizes for the Khan. Nanoc swore on his honor that they would cause no mischief if allowed to retain their weapons, Pursus proclaimed Eliot Sam the Khan of the Baronies, but Eliot Sam shushed him, pulling the group into a private discussion to determine their goals and intentions.

At that moment, Salga hijacked Pursus. Pursus struggled to remain aware as Gorge jumped on him and proceeded to “pound the demon” out one palm-heel-to-the-forehead at a time. Salga's rage at being stymied caused her to return to her own body, Pursus maintaining the wherewithal to ride back with her. He found himself behind her eyes as she rose from a divan in a luxuriant, marbled penthouse.

In a fury, Salga struck down a naked slave, walked around a shimmering pool, and hurled a brazier over the tenth-story balcony into the street below. Beyond spread Old Aedaron, an immense shimmering dome of paned glass sparkling nearby. Pursus attempted to seize her instead, failing completely but managing to slip away before she noticed his presence.

Passing his episode off as “communion with his Gods”, the group promised to do no harm unless they were attacked first, Enkila offering that they were free to kill any Boulderlander that tried without her sanction. Michkin said he would split from the group to tell their companions in the Brother's Pride where they headed, but was told he had two choices: go with the group or be killed.

Their tactic shifted to convincing Enkila to come to the ship instead, to arrive at the Khan's Council in style. Enkila asked if the ship was to be a gift and when the group replied in the negative, she admitted that Borli was likely to take it regardless so better if they just make it a gift. Gorge argued that they were all slaves in all but name now so it didn't matter what they did.

Withdrawing again, they sussed out their goals, Pursus stating he wanted the Twins to use a political device to gain Chiain's support of Eliot Sam, Michkin saying he was in it for the reward and didn't care what they did as long as they got it.

They returned to Enkila, Nanoc finally convincing her to travel with them by promising they would train Boulderlanders to fly airships on the trip. As Enkila organized her honor guard and half-a-dozen others to accompany them to the ship, they took a moment to speak to the Twins, the bold girl Nushen and the timid boy Yinshi

Eliot Sam simply asked if they wished to return home, getting a vague affirmative. Pursus gleaned much more, learning Akuma had come to them to recruit them for a quest to save the world from a powerful demon who claimed the world as its own but had lost it. He had said he needed the Twins to help him destroy the beacons that the demon had left behind to find its way back.

When the Twins gestured towards the shattered obelisk at the heart of the crater, Eliot Sam recalled that four-such obelisks stood at the compass points of the world, said to be so ancient as to predate man, most commonly believed to be a shield or ward of some sort.

Then it was Nushen's turn, asking Eliot Sam why he was so old (“because I haven't died yet”), Pursus and Michkin why their skin was so dark(“our god made us that way”), Pursus why he wore the strange mask(“it is a symbol of my order”), Michkin why he wore the big hat (“I'm our Aethership Captain”) and gaining his promise that she could fly the ship some day.

She asked Pursus which God was his father(“I'm not sure, but they say the Great Wanderer”), asked Gorge why his teeth were filed(“To better eat the hearts of man”) and why he did it since it had to hurt (“Strength is an easy trade for pain”), what hearts tasted like(“Blood”), and asked Nanoc what happened to his face(“Swamp monster bite”) and where his ear went(“Don't lose duels, kids.”.

Pursus left them with a warning that as fellow Gods-born they were likely to be used by those around them jealous of their power. Nushen asked if he was trying to use them too and he warned them that she and her brother would have to trust their own judgment, telling them their uncle might be an imposter. Nushen promised that when he returned to continue their quest, she'd have Yinshi figure it out since he was so smart.

As the main band of Boulderlanders headed South with the Twins, they headed East with Enkila. They had not gone far when a grimy Mud Stone scrambled up out of the crater. Asked why he had walked off the ship he replied unhelpfully that he forgot not to fall until the last minute.

That night they reached the edge of the Stonewood, those on watch hearing massive creatures pushing through the woods and three luminous pairs of huge eyes watching them from the treeline. In the morning Nanoc found a game trail seeming to head straight towards the mountain where the Brother's Pride had headed. They followed it despite the massive bear-sized cat-prints going the same direction.

After several hours they came to a huge tree bearing strange head-sized orange fruits. Spotting movement in the tree, Nanoc shouted a warning to the young Boulderlander who approached that the fruit had legs. The Boulderlander hurled a stone and thirty melon-sized spiders fell from the tree and rushed towards them.

In the chaos of the battle that ensued, Gorge attempted to assassinate Enkila, turning the battle into a three-way compaions-Boulderlanders-spiders clash turned in the companions' favor by a massive wind summoned by Pursus that rendered the Boulderlander's bows useless, the freaking stone-throwing and luck-turning of Mud Stone, and the dense forest that restricted the Boulderlander's ability to engage them effectively.

As Gorge's many wounds were patched up, Enkila was discovered to be still alive, then was bound and gagged.

Just before Nanoc's arrow took her in the forehead, the last surviving Boulderlander lowered her bow, grinned, and said to him in Clanspeak "this was a good death."

About that time, Nanoc and Brassy began hallucinating from their spider bites...

Session 15 - Cannibal Courtship, Countless Clans, and Covert Cuckholdry

After reviving Gorge, tying down their berserk companions, and slitting the throats of all the common foes, a brief discussion of Enkila's fate determined magic users were too dangerous to let live and she joined her compatriots in a slightly-delayed glorious death.

About that time, Eliot Sam spotted a massive horse-sized cat stalking towards them, issuing warning to his companions by way of hurling a knife into the woods. As the huge feline evaded and leapt forwards, Gorge approached and attempted to tame the monster, instead batted aside as easily as a ball of string as an even larger mother cat and a second cub charged from opposite sides of the clearing. Thanks largely to some terrifying sorcery from Pursus teleporting a tree branch into the mother's throat, she was killed and the cubs driven off. Exhausted from the back-to-back battles, the group dragged their near dead and/or hallucinating friends an hour up the trail before collapsing in exhaustion.

The following morning, they finally cleared the treeline, scaled a massive talus slope, and waded through snowfield near the peak from which their Aethership hung tethered. Two pair of light footprints tracked down from their ship, presumed to be the two-day old path of Mideru and Blisseru. Pushing on, the group scrambled across a glacier near the peak to find that a small crevasse was all that separated them from their ship. While the others debated plans for crossing it, Eliot Sam leaped over the gap and threw back a rope for the others to follow.

Shouts to the seemingly vacant ship brought Eliot Jr. stumbling out of the Captain's Cabin, Eliot Sam happening to check the mooring lines as Samara emerged behind his son wrapped in a bed sheet. As the rest of the companions shifted their gazes uncomfortably in Eliot Sam's direction, she slipped back within.

“What?” Eliot Sam said, staring at his compatriots. None had the guts to tell him.

The group zip-lined down to the ship, Eliot Sam weathering a forceful kiss and equally passionate slap from Samara for “abandoning her without a word – I thought you were dead” and further beratements. Eliot Sam told her he was a man of action, not words to which she argued he could perhaps spare one or two for her before abandoning her, storming off as Brassy slid to the deck.

The group debated tracking the Saitese pair or pushing on after the Twins, eventually deciding on the latter after a good night's rest to recover from their battles and hard trek up the mountain.

Soon after, Eliot Sam re-approached Samara, reiterating he was a man of words. This led to her revelation that she was her fathers favorite and thus he sold her last out of all her siblings to cover his gambling debts. She demanded an apology and demanded the ring he'd promised in Aetherport. He delayed and, when she asked for a promise to tell her what he was doing in the future he replied with his usual eloquent “f@&k that”.

With predictable results.

They rested the night, enjoying the luxury of a roof and lack of night-stalking murder cats, awakening to consume the last of the ship-board supplies. The effects of Aiko's poisoning began to make themselves felt again and they brewed another pot of the antidote, adding finding a full cure for it to their ever-growing to do lists.

Over breakfast, Gorge pronounced the Twins as too dangerous a weapon to handle that should be destroyed instead. Pursus countered that they needed the Twins alive to secure Chiain's help in the Baronies. Michkin compared them to ambulatory piles of gold should they get them to their thrones intact. Gorge again called them too dangerous, perhaps leading the Saitese to making war on the Baronies instead of aiding them once they became Emperors. Michkin replied they were at least as likely to become powerful allies instead.

Pursus protested all the talk of speaking of the two children as things rather than people. Brassy agreed, presenting the idea of a sale at Heaven's Gateway with a knife to the kid's throats to drive up their price or the complete alternate plan: win the kids over and live out their lives in paradise as rescuers of Emperors.

While they talked, Eliot Sam slipped away on a quest for Boulderlander bodies, followed by Pursus, only to discover hours of hiking later that they could no longer find the right trail that led to them. On their return, Pursus took a fast detour down the crevasse and had to be fished out and his injuries mended before they set sail.

A day and a half across the skies later found them half-a-mile above a gathering of tens of thousands of Boulderlanders of many clans all surrounding a massive leather tent. Pursus's arrow augury placed Mideru within said tent. The ship was set to circling the gathering to await night lit only by the rusty light of the Iron Moon. During the wait, Mud Stone took a questing slurp on Gorge's man bits, his bizarre “cocknomancy” placing one Subtle Jade somewhere in the Eon Baronies.

When Michkin asked the relevance of this person, the murderous cannibal proclaimed the courtesan his true love, his compass. Samara bitterly told Eliot Sam he should speak of her that way, Pursus countering that maybe she should be trying to prove herself to Eliot Sam instead of the other way around. Brassy agreed, causing Samara to throw Eliot Sam a petty ultimatum “her or me! I won't have that red-haired hussy on my ship any more!” He ignored her, sending her off for a mighty sulk, locked away in their cabin.

Mid-day, the massive gathering below broke apart and began to stream south in the form of numerous clan-groups. As Nanoc identified each by region, name, and fighting style Pursus' arrows directed them after the Twins and they drifted the ship where his arrow-augury indicated.

They reached the spot after nightfall, the Twins spotted far below in the midst of a clan of thousand Boulderlanders near a huge tent, escorted by Mideru and Blisseru. The winch and harness secured below decks were made ready, the ship dropping to a mere 300 feet as they prepared to swipe the Twins from the clutch of a barbarian clan. As they approached the heart of the camp, the boy Yinshi spotted them from beside a fire and pointed, setting Nushen to waving at them excitedly.

Session 16 - Clansmen and Sky Pirates

As the Brother's Pride swooped low over the Boulderlander encampment to reclaim the Twins, Eliot Sam, Pursus, and Michkin braced themselves to ride the winch-cable down, drop into the camp, secure the Twins, and escape. After crudely lashing the winch into place in the hold, Eliot Sam clipped his harness in and dropped down the line, followed closely by Michkin and Pursus.

Eliot Sam jerked to a halt at the end of the 250' line, still forty feet short of the ground. With Michkin and Pursus descending after him, he thought quickly, severing the last bit of rope just as they passed over the huge tent at the heart of the encampment. After a second of freefall, the thick hides of the tent slowed him only slightly before he crashed into a meat-strewn table. Instantly, a tall, scarred, naked woman leapt from a mass of furs with a bright axe and gleaming sword of steel almost instantly in-hand as her two bed companions scrambled for their own weapons and armor.

Meanwhile, Michkin bounced and rolled off the side of the tent, quietly re-approaching it to listen within.

The woman seemed more curious than alarmed at Eliot Sam's presence, at least until Pursus slammed into the ground behind him, wasting no time in dumping heavy wounds into the ground in rippling waves of writhing darkness. His sudden appearance and unknown magics launched an exchange of blows in which the woman inflicted a grievous wound on Eliot Sam, only to have its equal returned via the razor edge of Sam's sword Widow's Reprisal's. As a thousand warriors armed themselves and poured towards the tent, Michkin hacked his way through the side to die with his companions, just in time to see the woman's call summon a thirty-foot long snake-lizard from a side nook of the tent.

Staggering back from her wound, the warrior woman called for a halt to hostilities and lowered her weapons, a gesture quickly reciprocated.

As she calmed down the riled up throng of barbarians – having to tackle the berserker she'd been sleeping with to subdue him – her pet Aedaric Theurge was dragged in wrapped in chains, forced to heal her, then hauled back out.

Righting the table, Eliot Sam, Pursus, and Michkin plunked down across from the three that had been in bed together, Pursus starting the introductions: Eliot Sam, Scion and Duke of the Eon Baronies, Michkin Scion of the Skies, and Pursus of a bank of no particular relevance. She professed some knowledge of the soul bank, but failed to elaborate further, instead introducing herself as Borli Victorix, Khan of the Kinnate. Her companions were presented as Helta Sky, loresinger, archer, and adviser and Ranveig, doughty warrior and long-time companion.

As horns of mead were exchanged for sips on a flask of whiskey Pursus always packed, Eliot Sam recounted the tale of the blow Borli had landed on him, met with much approval and followed by Helta Sky offering an identical recount of Eliot Sam's blow in halting Aedaric. Such pleasantries complete, Borli asked why they were there. Pursus said they had come for the Twins, prompting Borli to ask with some surprise and admiration if they had hoped to slip in and whisk them away from the middle of an armed camp of a thousand warriors.

Pursus then began to bandy about ideas of alliance, hinting at the vastness of the land before them and the innumerable well-trained foes they would face down every mile of the way. She then corrected their misconception that she led the whole of the Kinnate, saying she controlled only her clan, the last tie to the other Thanes their promise to meet her at her city of Aetherport at the end of Summer-year with her one-part-in-ten of whatever loot they'd claimed on pain of being hunted down by her one-by-one.

She also admitted she was ready to kill them all until Eliot Sam landed his blow, proving that they may in fact be capable of killing her before they died. While she expressed no aversion to so worthy a death, her curiosity overcame her and so here they were. The subject drifted back to the Twins and her purposes on them. She told of “the small, slimy one's” offer of a two wagon-loads of gold for the safe return of the Twins to Chiain. She would have killed him outright but for the respect and prowess exhibited by the old quiet one.

Then the topic of Enkila came up, Borli having been informed of her Rimewitches' departure. An edited version of the spider story answered her query, prompting her to ask if Enkila had found a good death and concluding that death to battle-poison to be a decent exit.

The subject returned to the innumerable Legions likely already making their way North from Old Aedaron and Borli wryly related her subtle encouragements to the Thanes who sought their glory in taking the Statue City for themselves that they might blunt and absorb the Legions until Winter-year, long enough for her to solidify her hold on Aetherport. Her only worry was that the ships might flee the approach of her army like “pigeons from the coop at the approach of a fox” which sparked a great outpouring of Clanspeak from Helta Sky.

Translated, it became a proposal that Borli and a group of her best warriors ride in Michkin's Aethership to capture the Aetherport by surprise and hold it until Borli's fifty thousand warriors could secure the rest of the city.

Giving them time to think, Borli surrendered her tent to them, heading off to complete the night-time activities they had interrupted by crashing through her roof. The resulting discussion ranged from the feasibility of convincing any number of clans to avoid the Baronies, estimations of what chance the now-divided clans would have against the unified might of the Legions, and postulations as to whether a barbarian conqueror even could rule a city the size of Aetherport. After bandying about various plans, Michkin proposed they simply follow the plan she'd laid out, judging that she would not have been able to unify all the Clans unless she was honorable. Cunning yes, but definitely honorable.

When Borli returned with her companions, Eliot Sam started things by asking her what her companions meant to her. She said Helta Sky was the loresinger from a small, barely existent Stoneborn Clan who she'd convinced to follow her not only for his wisdom and advice, but to record her legend in song. Ranveig was her longest companion and the warrior closest to her equal of all she knew, one who had traveled with her to find the secret that led the Clans across the Summer Swamp.

Eliot Sam's questions answered, she sat down to finish their whiskey and hear their decision. They proposed flying to Chiain to drop off the Twins first, then return to Aetherport. Somewhat distracted and buzzed, Borli agreed and pushed quickly for their means of boarding the ship. Michkin proposed they flag down the ship to scoop them up, then he would land it on a high hill a few miles away where she and thirty warriors could board. She agreed, but asked for someone to remain with her to ensure their compliance. Pursus immediately volunteered to stay as a hostage.

After flagging down the circling ship, Michkin snagged the trailing winch-harness and was lifted to safety, followed by Eliot Sam. After telling all aboard of what had transpired, they headed to the hill at dawn where the Boulderlanders, the Twins, Blisseru, and Mideru boarded. There, Borli learned of what she had mistakenly agreed to, changing the plan to them going to Aetherport, dropping her people off and leaving them with the Twins. Eliot Sam pushed for better terms if the deal was to be changed, gaining the promise of free access to Aetherport once it was hers along with five Aetherships.

With that they set sail, the day passing uneventfully but for Pursus attempting to contact Borli's pet healer and being rebuffed.

Near dark they approached the Hollow Mountains again to spot the rapidly approaching shape of the Fury Faeda's Mourning Star. Thinking quickly, they hid the Boulderlanders below decks in hopes the pirate ship would approach and board. Instead, it stayed high and far, lobbing bolts from a ballista along with a wave of larger three-man gliders.

Pursus leapt into action, grabbing Gorge's hawkling, ripping its wings off, transforming his own arms into massive pterodactyl wings, strapping Eliot Sam and Gorge to his harness, and heading for the ship. The boy Yinshi took the broken beast and miraculously restored it with a touch. En route, they evaded the gliders alighting on the aft castle to assault Faeda. Meanwhile, Michkin turned the Brother's Pride towards the Mourning Star as the Boulderlanders formed a shield-wall on deck to engage the gliders. One suddenly dove for the aft castle to take Michkin, but Nanoc and Brassy managed to hold them at bay long enough for the Boulderlanders to spill up from below decks.

Aboard the Mourning Star, Faeda's etched steel cutlass nearly lobotomized Eliot Sam while the half-dozen archers protecting her took Gorge down. Pursus hurled his familiar and detonated CI in their midst, but his magics were not enough, a final decision causing him to haul Eliot Sam to safety, leaving Gorge's bloody corpse behind...